


Another Nameless Face that Haunts My Nightmares

by summerdayghost



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crime Scenes, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-04 13:44:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1781206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerdayghost/pseuds/summerdayghost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>But, goddammit, sometimes a man just needs a cigarette.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Nameless Face that Haunts My Nightmares

Jim reached into his coat pocket for a pack of cigarettes. Shit, he had accidentally left them at home… or his daughter had picked his pocket for the pack and hid it under the mattress. The second one was much more likely. He could practically taste the smug grin on Barbara's face. Barbara had been trying to get him to quit his habit for quite some time now.

Jim appreciated Barbara's efforts. Really. He did. It showed that she really did care about her old man. But, goddammit, sometimes a man just needs a cigarette. This was definitely one of those times.

Because it was three forty-two in the morning and Jim was leaning against a brick wall in a dark alley way trying to breathe (a cigarette isn't the best thing to help you breathe but shut up).

Jim had been a detective in this obviously cursed city for a while. He had seen things to terrible to happen (and the funny thing is that they still happened for some reason). This was not the first case like this he had seen. Not at all. But that didn't mean this kind of case didn't seriously fuck Jim up every single time.

Because at that moment the body on the cold ground that the crime scene photographer was capturing in all angles with bright flashes of light that gave Jim a serious migraine was a little boy. Just a little boy. The kid could have been anywhere from a late twelve to an early fourteen. There was no way he could have been any older. He was right around the age of Jim's own baby girl.

The boy was wearing an oversized tee shirt that was once all white but was now stained dark crimson and absolutely nothing else. Jim began to wonder if the boy would have simply frozen to death tonight instead if this had not of happened to to him. Maybe.

"Do you have any smokes on you?" Sarah pulled Jim from his thoughts.

Jim shook his head, "I wish. It's like the kid's looking right at me."

Jim had a point. The boy's bright blue eyes were still wide open and seemed to be staring in Jim's general direction. He tried to ignore it. It did not work. Those eyes continued to rip into the core of his very soul.

Sarah agreed, "I wish someone'd just close the poor kid's eyes."

Jim exhaled slowly, "That'd sure be nice." The odds of that actually happening were extremely low.

"God, he's a pretty boy. His looks probably helped him get a warm meal or two. Stuff like this just pisses me the hell off, y'know." Sarah said.

Jim glanced at the boy once again. The boy had raven black hair and olive skin that made his bright blue eyes pop. He had really nice facial features and an unusually slender build (the slenderness was probably from starvation). When Jim got to the boy's mouth he remembered yet another reason he didn't like looking at the kid. The boy's mouth was slack and wide and filled with… stuff (Jim wasn't going to let him self acknowledge what he knew that… stuff in the boy's mouth really was deep down).

Jim looked back at Sarah, "To be honest, more than anything this makes me sad. This kinda shit happens way too much in Gotham when it shouldn't even happen at all in the first place. Sick fucks find kids, much like this boy here, on the street and they rent them out to other sick fucks. These kids are hungry and cold and would do anything for some money or maybe even a meal. They're in no place to refuse. And then crap like this happens to those poor kids. They don't deserve it. And the people responsible for this are never caught and they'll just continue to get away with it. I bet there'll be no further investigation after tonight. Hell, this kid isn't even gonna make the paper. It'll be as if he never existed in the first place. After tonight the pictures that are being taken right now'll be locked away in a file cabinet never to be taken out again. This kid'll be forgotten to the entire world excluding me. From now on he'll simply be another nameless face that haunts my nightmares."

And nothing else.

**Author's Note:**

> The dead kid was Dick Grayson. This takes place in a world where Bruce never did the Batman thing and never took Dick in. Thank you for reading. I hope you liked it.


End file.
